


Don't Make Him Chose

by FiveFootAngel



Series: Steve's Type [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Other, Threesome - M/M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 14:25:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1651892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveFootAngel/pseuds/FiveFootAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The unplanned sequel to Dark Haired and Snarky and Talented, where the previously mentioned threesome actually becomes a serious relationship. No smut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Make Him Chose

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuses for this.

Darcy kicks them all out of the lab at three with the threat of calling Natasha. Or Pepper. Which is really just not playing fair at all. Tony goes, giving Dummy a last pat, and tickling Butterfinger’s eye stalk.

“Just know Lewis,” Tony grins at her as he walks backwards out of the lab, right in front of her shooing hands “I’m not leaving because I’m scared of you or Romanov. I’m leaving because I don’t want her to kill you for interrupting her super-secret spy stuff.”

“Natasha actually likes me.” Darcy informs him as she pries Jane’s pad from her fingers, and shepherds them all into the elevator “It’s you she’s looking for an excuse to kill.”

Tony sticks out his tongue at her, but she just laughs and JARVIS takes them all up to their quarters, so that Jane can drape herself over the god of muscles and Bruce can make a fuck-load of tea, and Darcy can go back to tumblr. Or sleep. Tony’s not sure if she actually does that, or if she’s got an IV for caffeine that she plugs herself into when no one else is looking.

Tony has reclaimed the penthouse. Well, most of it. He really couldn’t kick Pepper out of her side of the floor, because she ran his life, and was one of the sole reasons he has survived a lot of the shit that went down in his life, and also she deserved to have the best of everything. But most of the penthouse had gone to him and then later to him and Steve. And even more lately…well…

He heads straight to the shower and washes all of the sweat and engine grease and spilled coffee off himself, before dressing in a tank-top and yoga pants and heading out to the rest of the floor.

He strolls through the living room on his way to bed and freezes at the sight in front of him. Bucky is curled in Steve’s arms, face hidden in the curl of Steve’s neck, both arms clinging to Steve like a drowning man clinging to his last hope. Steve catches his eye and Tony knows it’s been a bad night.

Still, never let it be said that Tony Stark will discuss uncomfortable things like feelings if he can find a way out instead.

“Hey handsome boys. Waiting up for me?”

Bucky is clearly completely spent, but he uncurls from Steve enough to give Tony a shaky half smile, so he counts it as a win, and sits down perpendicular to the pair, rubbing gently at Bucky’s shoulders.

Steve manages to extricate a hand from the cradle he created for Bucky, and squeezes one of Tony’s shoulders, before settling the hand on his knee.  

“Might as well, right? Since we’re not allowed to have fun without you.”

“Wouldn’t want one of you geriatrics to break a hip.”

Bucky chuffs out a small laugh into Steve’s collar bone and lays his head on one of Steve’s broad shoulders.

Tony continues to rub gentle circles into Bucky’s shoulder blades, and discovers that the skin around where his metal arm met flesh was puffy and warm to the touch again.

“You need to let me have a look at your arm in the morning, Bucky.” He tells him, as gently as he knows how. “And you need to let me know when it’s hurting you.”

Bucky nods minutely, and all at once, starts moving, sliding into the space between Steve and Tony, and still half on top of them both, starts to scrabble for the release mechanism on his arm, but Steve catches his fingers, and holds them like they’re precious, while Tony gently removes the arm himself, and kisses the sweaty shriveled stump, all that remains of his old flesh and bone limb.

“Do you wanna go back to bed now that we’re all here Buck?” Steve asks him, and Bucky shakes his head “Can we…” his voice crackles, and now, this close up, Tony can see the tear streaks down his face, and the way his nose is still red, and his lip bitten because he still subconsciously doesn’t think it’s okay for him to cry out loud, and Tony wants to hurt Hydra for that, he really does, “shower? Before bed, I mean.”

“Of course we can.” Tony nods “I am obscenely rich, I can afford the water bill for as many showers as you can stand to take.” And he really doesn’t mind, in spite of the fact that he had literally _just showered._

Steve’s expression is three parts fond, to one part exasperated, but Bucky just nods, and leans into Tony further, before Steve helps them both to their feet.

Bucky is almost always off balance without his metal arm, and so Tony stands on his left, his vulnerable side and wraps an arm around his waist to keep him steady while Steve collects towels and new pajamas for them all.

The water is almost too hot, but it feels good against his skin as Tony washes Bucky’s hair, and Steve washes away all of the cold sweat from tears and adrenaline, and kisses the inside of Bucky’s knee, because Steve is secretly a really kinky son of a bitch, even when he’s being the sweetest person ever.

It had taken Tony approximately half a second to from finding out that the Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes to jump to _Oh crap, do I really want to let another person into this relationship? I kind of promised Cap that that could be a thing._ Another half second after that, his only though was _Steve – he never said that he would chose me, oh no, what if he chooses Barnes_ … He’d spent the day in a vague hazy sort of panic, and called up Rhodey to be laughed at, and Pepper to receive sighs and _Oh Tony,_ in sort of disappointed way that was kind of unfair.

And Steve doesn’t call, just texts him every day or so, but only with updates on the mission, and the occasional _stay safe._

So Tony stays safe, and steals satellites to track Bucky, and sends information to Sam Wilson. He also takes advantage of SHIELD’s new disclosure policy, and the fact that he owns all their asses to find out everything he can about what happened to create the Winter Soldier.

And it makes him see red. He is furious, that this sort of thing happened to someone who had been a hero, who Steve had loved so much, someone who was a gorgeous and a real and living human being, and he is determined to help him. No matter how the whole Steve thing shakes out in the end.

And then, a month and a half later, after Tony has gone half out of his mind, Steve turns up at the tower, with a half dead Bucky Barnes so of course Tony – well, Pepper sorts out doctors and everything.

And everything sort of passed in this long awkward haze, even though Steve was trying to give them both what they needed, and he was trying to give Steve what he needed, but they were both clearly quietly freaking out and it was all horrible and stilted, until one day Barnes walked into his lab and said “So, you’re Steve’s feller, aren’t yah?” in that rough Brooklyn accent that he never even tried to smooth out the way that Steve did sometimes.

“Yeah.” Tony nodded and then, unable to stop himself in any sort of good conscious “And you are too, aren’t you?”

Bucky had just nodded mutely, and watched the bots puttering around the workshop “If he’ll have me.”

Tony blinked. He’d expected anything besides this. He’d expected angry “Get your hands off my man.” Bucky Barnes, or maybe meek, noble, understanding Bucky Barnes, or even insane, Winter Soldier, shooting up everything not!Bucky Barnes, but never this quiet solemnity and purpose.

Bucky must have sensed his eyes on him, because he’d turned and explained “Stevie’s a grown-ass man, and even though I’ll never think anyone is good enough for him, he’s a pretty alright judge of character. I figure he can make his own decisions about who he wants to be with. But I ain’t giving up till he tells me no himself.”

That…was a surprisingly fair and enlightened way of looking at it all. And Tony could hardly believe it himself, but the next words out of his mouth were “What if we don’t make him choose?”

Bucky regarded him with a blank stare but Tony just grinned “Get over here Barnes, I wanna see how good you are at making out.”

Steve had been very easy to convince after that, and after a bit of a rocky start, and sorting out some communication issues, it’s all been very nice. And the sex is amazing.

It’s all great - except for the nightmares. Which seem to come and go, no matter what they all try, though they are getting farther apart.

When they finish, Tony grabs the biggest fluffiest towel he owns, and he and Steve gently pull fresh pajamas onto Bucky, ( _his_ yoga pants, and Steve’s SSR t-shirt, which is too big even on Bucky, but Tony gets why Steve chose the clothes that he did). While Tony dries and dresses himself, Steve dries Bucky’s hair, and combs it out. Darcy had somehow managed to show Bucky pictures of haircuts before Steve had gotten around to cutting Bucky’s hair, so he now wore his hair in a neat ponytail most days, and Steve had to be content to just cut the split ends, and keep everything trimmed and clean.

When they’re all clothed, Steve pulls Bucky up against him, with one arm, and Tony with the other, and they all somehow stumble into the bedroom. It’s technically Steve’s turn to sleep in the middle, but no one is under any illusions that he’ll actually use it tonight, and sure enough, he prods Bucky to the center of the bed, and spoons him from behind, reaching across him to hold Tony’s hand. Tony kisses Steve’s knuckles, and then leans forward, and tenderly kisses Bucky.

Bucky’s still deadly still in a way that means he’s focusing all his attention on not shaking, but Tony knows that he isn’t going to respond well to any reassurances right now so he murmurs “Have I told you the story about how Rhodey and I kind of blew up of one of the labs at MIT?”

Steve chuckles “I remember that one. I don’t think you’ve heard it though, have you Buck?”

Bucky shook his head, and Steve pressed a kiss to the nape of his neck.

“Well just sit tight handsome, and I’ll tell you.” Tony murmured, and propped his head up with one hand “I had dragged Rhodey there late at night, because I wanted to keep working on some equations, but I wanted to be surrounded by mechanics while I did it. It’s a thing, Steve. Some people like to have books around them…I like mechanics. You’re a grease monkey Bucky, you get it…”

He continued his story, watching the tension drain from Bucky’s body, while Steve continued to rub Bucky’s shoulders gently, kissing the puffy red skin around his stump.

Bucky’s breathing evens out just a few more minutes into the story, and Steve smiles at Tony over Bucky’s shoulder.

“Got my boys, got my tower…my work here is done.” Tony sing-songs lightly and Steve snorts lightly “I got that reference.”

“I’m so proud.” Tony grins “Really, I am. Soon you’ll be making obscure BBC references yourself, and stalking your friends of Facebook, and making fun of hipsters. Though maybe you won’t, because you’re kind of borderline accidental hipster yourself–

“Go to sleep Tony.” Steve grins, and Tony presses another kiss to Steve’s knuckles, before snuggling closer to Bucky. He could stand to get some sleep.


End file.
